|
Randy Rogers Band Like It Used To Be |
||
|
Track List 1. Disappear
|
(Down Time Records) Like It Used To Be is
the follow-up to the Randy Rogers Band's 2000 debut, Live At The Cheatham
Street Warehouse. The band consists of Randy Rogers on lead vocals and
acoustic guitar, Taylor Neese on bass, mandolin and harmony vocals, Geoffrey
Hill on lead guitar and harmony vocals, Hector Del Toro on drums, and Eddie
Foster on pedal steel. They quickly gained a name for themselves, and
have been asked to share the stage with such performers as Ray Wylie Hubbard,
Jack Ingram and Bruce Robison. No small wonder, they prove themselves to be
one gifted and tight little band. They take traditional country music and
deliver it with a rock & roll attitude, in the same vein as Reckless Kelly and
Cross Canadian Ragweed, giving their music appeal to both the frat house
crowd, as well as the two-stepping dancehall crowd.
On like it used to be, The Randy Rogers
Band delivers a nice variety of sounds. There are bouncy shuffles such as
"Disappear," and the country-to-the-bone "Friends With Benefits," with Libbi
Bosworth pitching in on vocals, where a couple realizes a romantic
relationship between them is just isn't in the cards. There's the rocking,
honky tonk of "Company You Keep" about walking away from a cheating
lover. They toss in a couple of drenched-in-steel country rockers with the
outstanding, can't win situation of "Still Losing You" and the title track
"Like It Used To Be." The boys add a bit of a western flair to the
mid-tempo, "One Thing I Know."
The upbeat melody of the story of "Tommy Johnson,"
belies this dark tale of a teenage boy who has an affair with a married woman,
and grants her a two barrel divorce. They give an exotic flavor to the melody
of the delightful "Copano Bay," a wistful song of never emotionally leaving a
place behind, even though it's physically left behind. The strong "Memory"
finds the song's character drinking away his memories of a lost love. Randy
and the boys round things out with two ballads, the lovely "Lost & Found,"
and an ode to love, in the swirling "Reason To Stay." Then there's a hidden
track, with Adam Carroll sharing vocals, a slightly off color and hilariously
bizarre look at the desperate lengths loneliness can drive some people to. At
least those with an affinity for plastic.
Randy Rogers wrote or co-wrote all of the album's
songs, and he and the rest of the band, have found a bridge with their music,
that should have no problem in appealing to both the younger college crowd, as
well as the older two-stepping honky, tonk crowd. like it used to be
is genuinely good music by the genuinely good Randy Rogers Band, and if
they continue on this track, they should be around for some time to come.
|
|
AnnMarie Harrington
Take Country Back November 2002